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Internet of Things

The rapid advance of information technology enables ever-more powerful systems, which are integrated in buildings, products, and devices. These embedded systems are networked with each other, but they are also networked with data and services on the Internet, which they can use directly. Thus, intelligent solutions are created that use sensors and actuators to record processes of the physical world, and connect them to the virtual software world and monitor and control them in interaction with people: the Internet of Things (IoT). Physical reality and the virtual world are growing together.

Why is the Internet of Things relevant for companies?

The IoT enables solutions to pressing social problems – such as the energy transition, an aging society, and mobility – with huge market opportunities.

The respective service is provided together in the network. The individual company can fully concentrate on its core competence.

Not planning in the direction of networking means losing considerable market share through disruptive IoT innovations.

Background:

Even today, 90 percent of microprocessor computational modules do not work in computers, but rather they are embedded in everyday objects and complex machines. More and more, these embedded systems are being connected to sensors and they can directly influence their environment via actuators. The resulting cross-domain networked systems are referred to as the Internet of Things, which illustrates the merging of the real and the virtual world.

Example – IoT in traffic:

The following traffic scenario no longer sounds so futuristic: Sensors in all modes of transport collect data about the current environment, detect potholes, for example, and pass the data on to a - possibly central - control system. This control system calculates the optimal traffic flow and brings it about; navigation devices route the traffic to by-pass roads or it releases premium lanes free of charge. In our example, the information is also passed on to the road maintenance department.